A proposal to build a major airport on the Hoo peninsula is one of several options being considered by the Boris Johnson. He wants to increase flight capacity around London without expanding Heathrow, and has also been considering an airport in the Thames Estuary. A spokesperson for the Mayor said it was “vital that a location for extra runway capacity was found for London to remain one of the leading world cities.” Bird strike would be a real problem.

The coalition Government’s stance on a Thames Estuary airport off Sheppey has been questioned by a Swale councillor. He asked the Swale Council leader whether the failure of David Cameron to dismiss the proposal meant it might be taken more seriously. This came after the issue was raised during a BBC interview with Mr Cameron at the Conservative Party conference. Mr Cameron had indicated he was happy for a series of feasibility reports to have been done.

Aviation industry chiefs’ lobbying transport secretary Alistair Darling to ditch the Cliffe Airport option from the aviation consultation has been dismissed by environmentalists.

Lobby group Freedom To Fly, whose members include British Airways, Virgin Airways and BAA, last week offered to write to Darling provided environmental groups drop their opposition to expansion at other airports.

Cliffe, on the Thames Estuary was a suggested location for a new £9billion airport but rejected on grounds of cost, and high environmental impact.

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Independent

BAA advises ministers against new Cliffe airport

By Michael Harrison, Business Editor

Tuesday, 5 November 2002

BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, is set to advise the Government against building a new airport at Cliffe in Kent in order to meet increased demand for air travel in the South-east.

Instead, BAA is expected to indicate that a third runway at Heathrow and the expansion of Stansted in Essex would be a more cost-effective and viable means of providing additional capacity.

The company is due to deliver its response by the end of this month to the consultation document issued by the Government in July setting out the options for expanding runway capacity in the South-east.

BAA will be careful, however, to emphasise that any final decision on where to site new runways must be one for the Government. It is likely to avoid making a hard and fast recommendation in favour of building new runways at particular airports for fear of antagonising local residents groups and environmental campaigners.

The Government document put forward three main options: a brand new airport at Cliffe in the Kent marshes next to an important breeding site for water fowl; a third runway at Heathrow to handle short-haul aircraft; and the expansion of Stansted with up to four additional runways.

Mike Hodgkinson, BAA’s chief executive, insisted yesterday that BAA was still working on its submission to the Government, and that much would depend on the studies by the Strategic Rail Authority into the cost and building new rail links to support increased runway capacity.

He was speaking as BAA reported a 3.6 per cent dip in normalised pre-tax profits for the six months to the end of September to £326m because of increased security and insurance costs and higher interest charges. BAA shares rose 6 per cent to 586p.

Despite the difficulty of gauging passenger numbers in the second half when BAA is much more reliant on business travellers than the leisure market, the company has not told analysts to amend their full-year profits forecasts which range from £505m to £550m.

BAA said it expected the Civil Aviation Authority to publish final proposals on the landing charges it can levy on airlines, for the five years from April 2003, in the next four to five weeks.

The CAA is in dispute with the Competition Commission over the mechanism for setting charges, with the CAA keen to separate them from the retail income BAA earns and the commission insistent that retail profits should continue to be used to subsidise landing charges.

Mr Hodgkinson said that whichever formula was chosen, the level of charges had to be enough to allow BAA to fund its investment programme, in particular the building of Terminal Five which is due to enter service in 2008.